Tuesday, May 15, 2007

I'm toying with a piece about some of the best male villains on current primetime series. At the moment, I have close to a full top 10 list, including Ben from "Lost," Gaius Baltar, Phil Leotardo, Marlo from "The Wire," Shane from "The Shield" and a few others (the "CSI" Miniature Killer will make the list depending on whether his appearance in the finale lives up to the build-up), but every time I do one of these list stories, I feel like I'm missing something obvious, so let me open the floor to you all.

Obviously, "villain" is a subjective term -- Tony Soprano and Vic Mackey could easily take the place of Phil and Shane -- so I'm open to all kinds of suggestions.

Adam, I was thinking Servilia myself or Atia who was just a wicked harpy. Sylar should be there: Boom. Leoben from BSG or Baltar though Leoben is more actively villanous than Baltar, IMHO. Justin Morningway from Dresden Files was no picnic.

I have a serious trouble with Shane be included in such a list. A Sopranos anologue to Shane would be Christopher, not Phil. He's the perennial screw up friend of the lead whose bad decisions seems to always come back to bite him and his friends, but still he is not the antagonist. The difference between Shane and Vic is that Vic is smarter and more competent. Vic has more redeming qualities but he is not that much better than Shane.

How about Andy on The Office? If, for nothing else, his line: "Oompa-loompa, doopity-dawsome! Dwight is gone, which is totally awesome!" The line is the epitome of what a comedic villain should be.

Antwon Mitchell from The Shield, perhaps?

Speaking of which, it's difficult to say that Shane is posed as a villain. To me, you have a protagonist, whether that protagonist is a hero or not, and an antagonist that works against him/her. Up until very recently, Shane hasn't been an antagonist. It wasn't until the most recent episode he was even outed as Lem's killer, so I don't think it's right to call him a villain just yet. Wait a few eps, maybe, when/if he works against Vic.

Also, I'm not sure Phil Leotardo belongs on the list. He's not much of a villain. His presence doesn't hang over the other characters the way a great villain's should. He isn't as menacing and imposing on that show as Tony's own character flaws. If anything, Tony's shortcomings as a human being should be the villain of that show.

I love that this is exactly like the Best Closing Songs Ever thread from a couple weeks ago.

Present shows?

1. Nicki and Roman on Big Love. Roman, in particular, is brilliant.

Past shows? (In no particular order)...

1. Boss Hogg.2. Anyone who messed with those meddling kids on the Scooby Doo.3. Herb from WKRP.4. Vodka and/or Sheila on Rescue Me.5. Livia.6. Valerie Malone on 90210.7. Mr. Belding on Saved by the Bell.8. The Joker, Riddler, Penguin and Catwoman on the original Batman.9. Glory on Buffy.10. Oscar on Sesame Street.

One character that I loved to hate (although he did become very humanized by the end of the season) was Buddy Garrity of Friday Night Lights...he epitmoized the rural Texas obsession with high school football perfectly.

Can't forget Rawls and Burrell on The Wire. They symbolize of bureaucratic evil in Baltimore along with Clay Davis- but Davis provides so much humor I don't think of him as a villian as mcuh as Burrell.

I'm not sure I agree with the Gaius Baltar assessment. The character has always felt tonally out of step with the rest of the show. You have such fine actors and well-realized characters on Galactica, and then you have Baltar talking to himself and getting away with just about anything because the writers want him to. Meh.

I'll agree with others on Sylar and Lex Luthor. I'm struggling for something else. I suspect that Victor on Desperate Housewives is going to turn out to be interestingly villainous, and the actor is quite good, but that might be premature.

I think I can only get away with one person per show -- especially a niche show like The Wire -- and while Rawls and Burrell are certainly more potent images of what David Simon is writing about society, Marlo is the closest thing the show has to someone who's actually evil (or, at least, purely sociopathic). It's a tough call.

And Shane is definitely the villain of this season of The Shield, I would argue, even if it took Vic until last week to figure that out.

Dexter vs. Ice Truck Killer is a tough call. I have a feeling if I handed in a column where half the people on the list are the main character on the show, my editor's going to tell me to start over from scratch.

Actually, now that I think of it - if the villian doesn't have to be current - just the show - there are a lot better ones from the Sopranos than Phil. Richie and Ralphie, for example. Mikey Palmice, Pussy, Matt Bevalaqua, Furio...

Just cut and paste the cast page from HBO and that's your collumn right there.

Wouldn't Stringer Bell be a "better" choice than Marlo? Marlo is a straight-up thug...but Bell was just an amazing three-dimensional character. Or maybe you aren't considering deceased characters?

Another vote for the "Ice Truck Killer" here...that was super-creepy.

I think the term "villain" is not really applicable to a lot of people...is Shane really a villain? Is Gaius Baltar one? I actually side with Baltar...I guess it just shows how much TV has evolved over the years.

I would say Cavil from Battlestar Galactica. I think he's the most chilling of all the male Cylons. When he unplugged Three this year I found him more frightening than ever. Charming and calculated, brilliant and deadly. Cavil.

Instead of the best villains on TV, do the best villains BEHIND TV. Write about the fucks that canceled Deadwood, Arrested Development, Knights of Prosperity, Angel, Andy Barker, P.I., Drive, and any of the other shows unjustly cut down before they could finish what they tried to start.

Philip Bauer from 24. He killed one son, wanted to kill the other, was the arms dealer who got Fayed the bomb that destroyed Ventura, and was apparently responsible for the assassination of David Palmer. And it seems like it was all an effort to take his grandson to China. All without a single thought about his granddaughter either.

The Ice Truck Killer is definitely the villain of Dexter, just by virtue of story structure. For all I know, Dexter could be the villain of season 2, but that won't begin until the fall.

Other than that and Roman from Big Love, I can't think of a strong male villain from any of my current shows. Dale on The Riches is definitely a bad guy, but I don't think he's strong enough to include in a top ten.